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A MEASURING ROD 

To 
TEST TEXT BOOKS, AND REFERENCE BOOKS 

In 

Schools, Colleges and Libraries 



Prepared By 

MILDRED LEWIS RUTHERFORD 

ATHENS, GA. 



At the Request of the 
UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS 






RESOLUTIONS BY UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS 



The following Resolutions were offered by General C. Irvine 
Walker of Charleston, S. C, at the Reunion in Atlanta, Octo- 
ber 8th, after Miss Rutherford's address on the importance 
of having the South 's history correctly taught in our schools: 

"Whereas, we have heard with the deepest interest the pa- 
triotic, historic, instructive and suggestive address of the illus- 
trious Soutliern Historian, Miss Mildred Rutherford, Therefore 
Be it Resolved : 

''1st. That our thanks are due and are hereby tendered to 
Miss Rutherford for her eloquent and truthful presentation of 
the facts of Confederate history. 

''2nd. That we accept her suggestion as to having such facts 
imparted to the young of our country, so that they may learn 
correctly the rights and the history of that great struggle for 
which we offered our lives and gave everything save our sacred 
honor. 

"3rd. That to make an organized effort to accomplish what 
she suggests, a committee of five be appointed, and ^f by it 
deemed practicable, to carry out the same, under the authority 
of this federation. 

"4th. That the cooperation of the Sons of Confederate Vet- 
erans and United Daughters of the Confederacy be invited and 
each asked to appoint five members to form a part of our Com- 
mittee." 

COMMITTEE APPOINTED 

At the Reunion held in Atlanta, October 7-11, 1919, the United 
Confederate Veterans resolved to inaugurate a movement to 
disseminate the truths of Confederate history. 

To carry out the same, the following Committee was ap- 
pointed : 

GEN. C. IRVINE WALKER, Honorary Comdr.-in-Chief, U. C. 
v., Chairman, Charleston, S. C. 

GEN. JULIAN S. CARR, Comdr. Army No. Va., U. C. V., Dur- 
ham, N. C. 

GEN. CALVIN B. VANCE, Comdr. Army Tenn., U. C. V., 
Batesville, Miss. 

GEN. VIRGIL Y. COOK, Comdr. Trans. Miss., U. C. V., Bates- 
ville, Ark. 

GEN. A. J. TWIGGS, Comdr. East Ga. Brigade, U. C. V., 
Augusta, Ga. 

2 

GIFT 

AUTHat 

JAN 8 rA- 



The Sons of Confederate Veterans have appointed the fol- 
lowing Committee to cooperate with the Veterans: 
REV. J. CLEVELAND HALL, Chairman, Danville, Va. 
DR. JNO. W. HOOPER, Roanoke, Ala. 
W. C. CHANDLER, Memphis, Tenn. 
W. S. LEMLEY, Temple, Texas. 
J. J. SLAUGHTER, Muskogee, Okla. 

A MEASURING ROD FOR TEXT-BOOKS 

" 'A Measuring Rod For Text-Books/ prepared by Miss Mil- 
dred L. Rutherford, by which every text-book on history and 
literature in Southern schools should be tested by those desiring 
the truth, was submitted to the Committee. This outline was 
read and carefully considered. 

"The Committee charged, as it is, with the dissemination of 
the truths of Confederate history, earnestly and fully and 
officially, approve all that is herein so truthfully written as to 
that eventful period. 

"The Committee respectfully urges all authorities charged 
with the selection of text-books for colleges, schools and all 
scholastic institutions to measure all books offered for adoption 
by this ''Measuring Rod" and adopt none which do not accord 
full justice to the South. And all library authorities in the 
Southern States are requested to mark all books in their collec- 
tions which do not come up to the same measure, on the title 
page thereof, "Unjust to the South." 

"This Committee further asks all scholastic and library au- 
thorities, in all parts of the country, in justice and fairness to 
their fellow citizens of the South, to yield to the above request. 
"C. IRVINE WALKER, Chairman." 



INDEX* Page 

I, The Constitutiou of the United States, 1787, Was a 
Compact between Sovereign States and "Was not 
Perpetual nor National 6 

II. Secession Was not Rebellion 7 

III, The North Was Responsible for the War between the 

States 8 

IV. The War ibetween the States Was not Fought to Hold 

the Slaves 9 

V. The Slaves Were Not lU-Treated in the South and the 
North Was largely Resi^onsible for their Presence 

in the South 10 

VI. Coercion Was not Constitutional 11 

VII. The Federal Government Was Responsible for the 

Andersonville Horrors 12 

VIII. The Republican Party that Elected Abraham Lincoln 

Was not Friendly to the South 13 

IX. The South Desired Peace and Made every Effort to 

Obtain it 14, 15, 16 

X. The Policy of the Northern Army Was to Destroy' 

Property — the Southern Army to Protect it 18-21 

XI. The South Has never Had its Rightful Place in Liter- 
ature 22-23 

* See "Truths of History," by Mildred Lewis Rutherford, Athens. Ga., for 
additional testimony. 

A FOREWORD FROM MISS RUTHERFORD 
Realizing that the text-books in history and literature which 
the children of the South are now studying, and even the ones 
from which many of their parents studied before them, are in 
many respects unjust to the South and her institutions, and 
that a far greater injustice and danger is threatening the South 
today from the late histories which are being published, guilty 
not only of misrepresentations but of gross omissions, refusing 
to give the South credit for what she has accomplished, as His- 
torian of the U. D. C, and one vitally interested in all that per- 
tains to the South, I have prepared, as it were, a testing or 
measuring rod. Committees appointed by Boards of Education 
or heads of private institutions and their teachers can apply this 
test when books are presented for adoption, so that none who 
really desire the truth need be hampered in their recommenda- 
tion for acceptance or rejection of such books. 

Absolute fairness to the North and South is stressed as only 
Truth is History. 

MILDRED LEWIS RUTHERFORD. 

Athens, Georgia. 
4 



WARNING*t 

Do not reject a text-book because it does not contain all that 
the South claims — a text-book cannot be a complete encyclopedia. 

Do not reject a text book because it omits to mention your 
f?ther, your grandfather, your personal friend, socially or polit- 
ically — it would take volumes to contain all of the South 's 
great men and their deeds. 

Do not reject a text-book because it may disagree with your 
estimate of the South 's great men, and the leaders of the South 's 
Army and Navy — the world can never agree with any one per- 
son's estimate in all things. 

But — reject a book that speaks of the Constitution other than 
a Compact between Sovereign States. 

Reject a text-book that does not give the principles for which 
the South fought in 1861, and does not clearly outline the in- 
terferences with the rights guaranteed to the South by the 
Constitution, and which caused secession. 

Reject a book that calls the Confederate soldier a traitor or 
rebel, and the war a rebellion. 

Reject a book that says the South fought to hold her slaves. 

Reject a book that speaks of the slaveholder of the South as 
cruel and unjust to his slaves. 

Reject a text-book that glorifies Abraham Lincoln and villifies 
Jefferson Davis, unless a truthful cause can be found for such 
glorification and villification before 1865. 

Reject a text-book that omits to tell of the South 's heroes 
and their deeds when the North's heroes and their deeds are 
made prominent. 

Refuse to adopt any text-book, or endorse any set of books, 
upon the promise of changes being made to omit the objection- 
able features.* 

A list of books, condemned or commended by the Veterans, 
Sons of Veterans, and U. D. C, is being prepared by Miss Ruth- 
erford as a guide for Text-Book Committees and Librarians. 

This list of course contains only the names of those books 
which have been submitted for examination. Others will be 
added and published monthly in ''The Confederate Veteran/' 
Nashville, Tennessee. 



* Tlie endorsement of a series of Historic.il Novels. "The Real Ronianr-e of 
History," was once given by tlie Hiatorian-General, U. D. C, upon the prom- 
ise to chnnse the oli.iectioiialjle statements resrardins the War between the 
States. The endorsement was nsed lint the promise was not Isept — her endorse- 
ment sold many liooks containins' tlie falselioods. 

t There was not time to snbmit this "Warning" to the Veterans or Sons of 
Veterans, but Miss Rutherford thinks it will meet with their approval. 



A Measuring Rod for Text Books 

(See ''Truths of History," by Mildred Lewis Rutherford, 
Athens, Ga., for additional testimony). 



I. 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 
1787, WAS A COMPACT BETWEEN SOVEREIGN 
STATES, AND WAS NOT PERPETUAL NOR 
NATIONAL. 

AUTHORITY: 
Elliott's Debates, Vol. V., p. 214: 

"When the Constitution was outlined and read, the 
words Perpetual Union which had been in the Articles of 
Confederation were omitted. Alexander Hamilton and 
others noticing it, and desiring a Union, opposed the adop- 
tion of the Constitution. Some one moved to have it made 
a National Government, but this motion was unanimously 
defeated. Senator Ellsworth of Connecticut and Senator 
Gorham of Massachusetts have testified to this." 
Daniel Webster, "The Federalist," p. 908: 

"If the states were not left to leave the Union when their 
rights were interfered with, the government would have 
been National, but the Convention refused to baptize it by 
that name." 

Daniel Webster, Capon Springs Speech, in 1851 : 

"The Union is a Union of States founded upon Compact. 
How is it to be supposed that when different parties enter 
into a compact for certain purposes either can disregard 
one provision of it and expect others to observe the rest? 

"If the Northern States wilfully and deliberately refuse 
to carry out their part of the Constitution, the South would 
be no longer bound to keep the compact. 

"A bargain broken on one side is broken on all sides." 
Daniel Webster in 1833 said: 

"If a contract, it rests on plighted faith, and the mode 
of redress would be to declare the whole void. States may 
secede if a League or Compact.'' 
Henry Cabot Lodge says : 

"The weak place in Webster's armour in the Hayne- 
Webster Debate was historical — the facts were against him. 
And Chief Justice Story in that controversy never once 
mentioned secession, he was only stressing nullification." 



II. 

Secession Was Not Rebellion 

AUTHORITY : 

Db, Henry Wade Rogers, Dean of the Law Department of Yale : 

"When peace came it was found that the Articles of 
Confederation were weak, in that the Central government 
could not legally assume sovereign power — that power re- 
sided in those free, sovereign and independent States, and 
there was no delegation of any rights to a central head. 

"It became necessary, therefore, to change the Articles 
of Confederation so that the States should be brought to 
cooperate, by realizing that the government should not be 
a perpetual Union, but an agreement by which certain 
rights were reserved for the Federal government, and cer- 
tain rights were reserved for the State." 

Rawle's "View of the Constitution" was a text-book used at 
West Point. Rawle said: 

"It will depend upon the State itself whether it will 
continue a member of the Union." 

"If the States are interfered with they may wholly with- 
draw from the Union." (pp. 289, 290). 

"General Lee told Bishop Wilmer, of Louisiana, that if 
it had not been for the instruction received from Rawle *s 
text-book at West Point he would not have left the United 
States Army and joined the Confederate Army at the 
breaking out of the War between the States." 

Benjamin T. Wade, Senator from Ohio, 1858 : 

"Who is to be the final arbiter — the government or the 
States — why, to yield the right of the States to protect its 
own citizens would consolidate this government into a mis- 
erable despotism." 

GoLDWiN Smith of Cornell University: 

"The Southern leaders ought not to have been treated as 
rebels — secession is not rebellion." 
Judge Black, of Pennsylvania, said : 

"John Quincy Adams, in 1839, and Abraham Lincoln, 
1847, made elaborate arguments in favor of the legal right 
of a State to Secede." — Black's Essays. 
American Conflict, Horace Greeley, Vol. I, p. 359 : 

"Let the people be told why they wish to break up the 
Confederation, and let the act of secession be the echo of an 
unmistakable popular fiat. Then those who rush to carnage 
to try to defeat it would place themselves clearly in the 
wrong. ' ' 

7 



III. 

The North Was Responsible for the War Between the States 

AUTHORITY: 
The New York Herald, April 7, 1861 : 

"Unless Mr. Lincoln's administration makes the first 
demonstration and attack, President Davis says there will 
be no bloodshed. With Mr. Lincoln's administration, there- 
fore, rests the responsibility of precipitating a collision, and 
the fearful evils of protracted war." 

The New York Herald, April 5, 1861 : 

"We have no doubt Mr. Lincoln wants the Cabinet at 
Montgomery to take the initiative by capturing two forts 
in its waters, for it would give him the opportunity of 
throwing the responsibility of commencing hostilities. But 
the country and posterity will hold him just a.s responsible 
as if he struck the first blow." 
Sheppard's "Life of Lincoln": 

"Please present my compliments to General Scott and 
tell him confidentially to be prepared to hold or retake the 
forts as the case may require after my inauguration." — 
Abraham Lincoln. 
Horton's History, p. 71: 

"The withdrawal of the Southern States from the Union 
was in no sense a declaration of war upon the Federal gov- 
ernment but the Federal government declared war on them, 
as history will show." 
Gideon Welles: 

"There was not a man in the Cabinet that did not know 
that an attempt to reinforce Sumter would be the first 
blow of the war." 
Seward said : 

"Even preparation to reinforce will precipitate war." 
Stephen Douglas said : 

"Lincoln is trying to plunge the country into a cruel war 
as the surest means of destroying the Union upon the plea 
of enforcing the laws and protecting public property." 
Zack Chandler wrote to Governor Blair: 

"The manufacturing States think a war will be awful, 
but without a little blood-letting the Union will not be worth 
a curse." 
William Seward said : 

"The attempt to reinforce Sumter will provoke war. The 
very preparation of such an expedition will precipitate war. 
I would instruct Anderson to retui'n from Sumter." 



IV. 
The War Between the States Was Not Fought to Hold the 

Slaves 

AUTHORITY : 

A Resolution was passed unanimously by Congress July 23, 
1861: 

"The war is waged by the Government of the United 
States, not in the spirit of conquest or subjugation, nor for 
the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights 
or institutions of the states, but to defend and protect the 
Union." 

Abraham Lincoln, in his Inaugural Address : 

"I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I 
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no in- 
clination to do so." 

G-EOEGE Lunt's ''Origin of the Late War," p. 432: 

"A war simply for the abolition of slavery would not 
have enlisted a dozen regiments at the North." 

Unanswerable arguments will be found in the facts that a 
slaveholder, General U. S. Grant, was placed in command of the 
Union Army, and General Robert E. Lee who had freed his 
slaves put in command of the Confederate forces. Two hun- 
dred thousand slaveholders only were in the Southern Army 
while three hundred and fifteten thousand slaveholders were in 
the Northern Army. 

General Grant (Democratic Speaker's Handbook, .p. 33), said: 
"Should I become convinced that the object of the Gov- 
ernment is to execute the wishes of the abolitionists, I 
pledge you my honor as a man and a soldier I would re- 
sign my commission and carry my sword to the other side." 

Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Secretary of "War, wrote to General 
Butler in New Orleans : 

"President Lincoln desires the right to hold slaves to be 
fully recognized. The war is prosecuted for the Union 
hence no question concerning slavery will arise." 



V. 
Slaves Were Not lU-Treated in the South. The North Was 

Largely Responsible for Their Presence in the South, 

AUTHORITY : 

The servants were very happy in their life upon the old planta- 
tions. William Makepeace Thackeray, on a lecture tour in 
America, visited a Southern plantation. In "Roundabout 
Papers" he gives this impression of the slaves: 

' ' How they sang ! How they danced ! How they laughed ! 
How they shouted ! How they bowed and scraped and com- 
plimented ! So free, so happy ! I saw them dressed on Sun- 
day in their Sunday best — far better dressed than our 
English tenants of the working class are in their holiday 
attire. To me, it is the dearest institution I have ever seen 
and these slaves seem far better off than any tenants I have 
seen under any other tenantry system." 
Major General Quitman of the United States Array thus de- 
scribed life on the ''Old Plantation" in 1822 while stationed in 
Mississippi : 

The mansions of the planters are thrown open to all 
comers and goers free of charge. The owner of this planta- 
tion is the widow of a Virginia gentleman of distinction, 
who was an officer in the last war with Great Britain. 

' ' Her slaves are a happy, careless, unreflecting, good na- 
tured race. They are strongly attached to 'old massa,' and 
'old missus' ; but their devotion to 'young massa' and 'young 
missus' amounts to enthusiasm. While in a way these slaves 
appear to be free, they are very obedient and polite and 
they do their work well. 

"These 'niggers,' as you call them, are the happiest peo- 
ple I have ever seen. They are oily, sleek, bountifully fed, 
well clothed and well taken care of. One hears them at all 

times whistling and singing cheerily at their work 

"But a negro will sleep — sleep at his work, sleep on his 
carriage box, sleep standing up, sleep bare-headed in the 
sun, and sleep sitting on a high rail fence. Yet, compared 
with the ague-smitten and suffering settlers in Ohio, or the 
sickly, half-starved operatives in the factories and mines of 
the North and the Northeast, these Southern slaves are in- 
deed to be envied. They are treated with such great hu- 
manity and kindness. ' ' 
Chas. E. Stowe, the son of Harriet Beeeher Stowe, in speaking 
at a negro college, said : 

"If you ask me if the slaves were better off under the in- 
stitution of slavery than they are under freedom, I must in 
candor answer that some were — they were not fit for free- 
dom." 

10 



Coercion Was Not Constitutional 
AUTHORITY : 

William Seward to London Times Correspondent, Mr. Russell, 
April 4, 1861 : 

"It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Gov- 
ernment to use force to subjugate the South." 

Mr. Seward to Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Minister to Eng- 
land, April 10, 1861 : 

"Only a despotic and imperial government car coerce 
seceding St-ates." 

Edward Everett: 

"To try to hold fifteen States to the Union is preposter- 
ous. ' ' 

President James Buchanan to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary 
of War : 

"There is no power under the Constitution to coerce a 
seceding State." 

The New York Herald : 

"The day before Fort Sumter was surrendered two-thirds 
of the newspapers in the North opposed coercion in any 
shape or form, and sympathized with the South. Three- 
fifths of the entire American people sympathized with the 
South. Over 200,000 voters opposed coercion and believed 
the South had a right to secede. ' ' 

''The Journal of Commerce fought coercion until the 
United States mail refused to carry its papers in 1861." 

Charles Sumner said : 

"Nothing can possibly be so horrible, so wicked or so 
foolish as a war against the South. ' ' 

James S. Thayer, of New York, on January 21, 1861, said : 

"If the incoming Administration shall attempt to carry 
out a line of policy which has been foreshadowed, and con- 
struct a scaffold for coercion — another name for execution 
—we will reverse the order of the French Revolution and 
. save the blood of the people by making those who would in- 
augurate a 'Reign of Terror' the first victim of a national 
guillotine." (Enthusiastic applause). 



11 



VIT. 

The Federal Government Was Responsible for the Anderson- 

ville Horrors 

AUTHORITY: 

Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, said: 

"We tliink after the testimony given that the Confederate 
authorities and especially Mr. Davis ought not to be held 
responsible for the terrible privations, suffering, and in- 
juries wliich our men had to endure while kept in Confed- 
erate Military Prisons, the fact is unquestionable that while 
Confederates desired to exchange prisoners, to send our 
men home, and to get back their own men. General Grant 
steadily and strenuously resisted such an exchange." — New 
York Sun. 

General Butler said : 

"The reason for this was that the exchange of prisoners 
would strengthen Lee's army and greatly prolong the war." 

General Grant said : 

"Not to take any steps by which an able-bodied man 
should be exchanged until orders were received from him." 

Secretar}^ of War Edwin M. Stanton's statistics testify that 
while there were fifty thousand more of prisoners in Southern 
prisons than in Northern, the mortality among Southern men in 
Northern prisons was far greater. 

General Grant, again, said : 

If w'e hold these men caught they are no more than dead 
men. If we liberate them we will have to fight on until the 
whole South is exterminated." 

This agreas with General Lee's testimony {Official Records War 
of the Rebellion) : 

"I offered General Grant to send into his lines all of the 
prisoners within my Department provided he would return 
man for man. When I notified the Confederate authorities 
of my proposition, I was told if accepted they would gladly 
place at m,y disposal every man in our Southern pi-isons. I 
also made this offer to the Committee of the United States 
Sanitary Commission — but my propositions were not ac- 
cepted." 



12 



VIII. 

The Republican Party That Elected Abraham Lincoln Was 
Not Friendly to the South 

AUTHORITY : 
Wendell Phillips: 

"The Republican party is in no sense a National party; 
it is a party pledged to work for the downfall of Democracy, 
the downfall of the Union, and the destruction of the United 
States Constitution. The religious creed of the party was 
hate of Democracy, hate of the Union, hate of the Consti- 
tution, and hate of the Southern people." 

Again, he says: 

"The Republican party is the first sectional party ever 
organized in this country. It does not know its own face 
and calls itself National, but it is not National, it is sec- 
tional. It is the party of the North pledged against the 
South. It Avas organized with hatred of the Constitution. 

"The Republican party that elected Abraham Lincoln is 
pledged to the downfall of the Union and the destruction 
of the United States Constitution. 

"William Lloyd Garrison believed in the Constitutional 
right to hold slaves, and said the Union must be dissolved 
to free them. 

"He believed in the Constitutional right of secession, so 
was willing to publicly burn the Constitution to destroy 
that right and called it 'a compact with death and a league 
with hell.'" 

Charles Beecher Stowe said: 

"The party that elected Abraham Lincoln was a party 
avowedly hostile to the institution of slavery." 
Had they not heard him say in his address at Cooper Insti- 
tute that : 

"The anti-slavery sentiment had already caused more 
than a million votes which could only be seen by Southern 
States to mean a danger and menace. Consequently when 
they drew the sword to defend the doctrine of States rights 
and the institution of slavery, they certainly had on their 
side the Constitution and the laws of the land, for the Na- 
tional Constitution justified the doctrine of State rights." 

Mr. Raymond, in the Neiv York Times, says: 

"His election was more by shouts and applause Avhich 
dominated the convention than from any direct labors of 
any of the delegates." — Boston Courier, May 26, 1860. 

13 



IX. 

The South Desired Peace and Made Every Effort to Obtain It 

AUTHORITY : 

The Mississippi Convention sent a commissioner to Maryland 
and when asked what was the intention of the Southern States 
by secession, (Shaffner's "Secession War," London, 1862), 
he replied: 

"Secession is not intended to break up the present gov- 
ernment, but to perpetuate it. Our plan is to withdraw from 
the Union in order to allow amendments to the Constitu- 
tion to be made, guaranteeing our just rights. If the North- 
ern States will not make these amendments — then we must 
secure them ourselves by a government of our own." 

Lord Charn wood's ''Life of Lincoln": 

"This madness appeared when the Congress met in De- 
cember, 1860. In order to allay the apprehensions of the 
Southern people regarding the purposes of the party just 
ready to come into power, the Southern members offered 
resolution after resolution looking to tranquility. These 
resolutions were all rejected by the House of Representa- 
tives. 

"Then was offered in the Senate the celebrated 'Critten- 
den Compromise,' yielding all that the North demanded in 
regard to exclusion of slavery from the Territories, but in- 
sisting that the Constitution be respected as to fugitive 
slaves, and that the Constitution be maintained and its pro- 
vision be kept as adjudicated by the Supreme Court of the 
land. The South made no new request ; it went not outside 
of the Constitution. It rested its case on the Constitution 
and on its interpretation by the highest court of the land. 
It was strictly loyal to the Constitution. 

Why was the Crittenden Compromise rejected? Be- 
cause Mr. Lincoln willed it. He wrote letters to his party 
leaders to defeat it. He said 'he had no compromises to 
make with the South.' The idea was that he had triumphed 
and that triumph meant no surrender in any respect of the 
new policies. 

"It was a tragic day when the Crittenden Compromise 

was defeated. Not a single Republican voted for it. 

The Crittenden Resolutions were a most generous proposition 

from the South to allow out of the 1,200,000 square miles of 

territory acquired by conquest and purchase, 900,000 square 

miles for free territory and the remaining 300,000 square miles 

14 



to be free or slave as each new State formed might choose, and 
this, too, when Southern prowess had largely gained the terri- 
tory. These resolutions in the interest of peace were offered by 
Northern and Southern Democrats. Lincoln notified all Re- 
publican States through Senators Harlan and Zach Chandler 
to vote against these resolutions. Had he not done this they 
would have passed. Unjust as they were to the South, the 
South would have accepted them, and Thurlow Weed and Seward 
would have seen that they were passed by the North. It was 
Lincoln's fault they were rejected. George Lunt said Lincoln 
later acknowledged that he regretted this. 

Again Lord Charnwood said: 

"Senator Chandler, of Michigan, had telegraphed to the 
Governor of Michigan to send delegates to the Peace Con- 
gress, 'but to send stiff-necked men or none — for without a 
little blood letting the Union will not be worth saving.' " 

George Lunt, p. 423, says: 

"The propositions of the Peace Conference evidently 
formed a sound basis for settlement of the controversy. 
These resolutions were introduced by Mr. Crittenden, of 
Kentucky, and had they been adopted, they would have 
saved the country from its coming trials. On the commit- 
tee of thirteen reporting these resolutions were Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi; Mr. Hunter, of Virginia; Robert 
Toombs, of Georgia; five from slave States — eight from 
free States. General Toombs reported to his constituents 
in Georgia that the Black Republican solidly voted against 
the resolutions. Mr. Douglas, in the Senate, said: 'Every 
member from the South including Messrs. Davis and 
Toomhs, from the Cotton States, expressed a willingness to 
accept the resolutions as a final settlement of the contro- 
versy. Hence the responsibility of our disagreement, and 
the only difficulty in the way of an amicable adjustment is 
with the Republican party." (See Congressioiml Olohe, 
Appendix 1800-61, p. 41). 

"Mr. Toombs, in the Senate, said there were some condi- 
tions he would prefer, but for the sake of peace — perma- 
nent peace — he would accept them." 

Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, said he had heard the senator from 
Mississippi (afterwards President Davis) before leaving 
the Senate Chamber say he would accept it to maintain 
the Union. There is no doubt but that a two-thirds vote 
would have saved the Union." 



15 



When it came to a final vote evei'y Repwhlican voted against 
them except Mr. Seward ivho refused to vote at all. The resolu- 
tions were lost by a vote of 20 to 19. How could peace have 
been brought about? 

Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, in 1860, had the true idea. He said : 

"The true way to restore harmony is by cheerfully and 

honestly assuring every section its Constitutional rights. 

No section professes to ask more ; no section ought to offer 

less." 

Mr. Brown, a personal friend and colleague of Jefferson Davis, 
of Mississippi, replied : 

"If that same spirit could prevail which actuates the 
senator from Connecticut, who has .just taken his seat, a 
different state of things might be produced in twenty days." 

The Rejection of the Crittenden Resolutions created a crisis : 

"The Southern leaders then called a conference. What 
was to be done? All their proposals of compromise, look- 
ing to peace, tranquility, security within the Union, had 
failed. They asked each other: 'What is the purpose of 
this anti-South party? What means the rejection of our 
compromises? Why did Mr. Lincoln discountenance any 
compromise? What means this secession from the Consti- 
tution ? This refusal to abide by the decisions of the United 
States Supreme Court? What means Mr. Lincoln's atti- 
tude in opposing the Crittenden Compromise?' 

"Despairing of their rights within the Union, the South- 
ern leaders advised the Southern States to throw themselves 
back on their reserved rights and withdraw from the Union. 
But it was too late. It could have been done in 1S50. but 
not in 1861. From 1850 to 1860 the North had educated 
the people of the North out of the Jefferson theory of State 
rights. ' ' — George Lunt. 

Second Peace Congress, Ex-President John Tyler, President, 
Washington, D. C. : 

"Virginia did not act at the time with the Southern 
States that organized the Confederacy, but called a 'Peace 
Conference.' Twenty-one States responded to the call. 
The venerable John Tyler, ex-President of the United 
States, was chosen president. They met in Washington 
on February 4. 1861. But Salmon P. Chase, to be the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury under the new administration, was 
there as the representative of Mr. Lincoln and the new vic- 
torious party. His speech destroyed all hope of any recon- 
ciliation. He refused all compromises, and said Northern 

16 



States would never fulfill that part of the Constitution in 
regard to fugitive slaves, and that the decision of the Su- 
preme Court would not be abided. The failure of this con- 
ference was a great disappointment, especially to Virginia. 
Mr. Lincoln took the same stand as he did regarding the 
Crittenden Compromise." — Lord Charnwood's ''Life of 
Lincoln." 

Judge Salmon P. Chase in Peace Congress : 

"I must tell you further that under no inducements what- 
ever will we consent to surrender a principle which we be- 
lieve to be sound, and so important as that of restricting 
slavery within State limits." 

And again he said : 

"The people of the free States who believe that slavery 
is wrong cannot and will not aid in returning runaway 
slaves and the law becomes a dead letter." 

Now, this was in defiance of the decision of the Supreme 
Court in the Dred Scott case. 
Secretary Chase announced that : 

"The Republican party would concede nothing in regard 
to slave extension in the Territories, and the Northern 
States would never fulfill their Constitutional obligations." 
(There was nothing to do but to adjourn). 

The third attempt was when the Peace Commissioners were sent 
from the Confederate government with this message: 

"The undersigned are instructed to make to the Govern- 
ment of the iinited States overtures for the opening of ne- 
gotiations, assuring the Government of the United States 
that the President, Congress, and people of the Confeder- 
ate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great 
questions; that it is neither their interest nor their wish to 
make any demand which is not founded in strictest justice, 
nor do any act to injure their late Confederates." 

Vessels were manned and armed while the delegates were 
waiting in Washington ; and were sent to provision and rein- 
force Sumter. The last effort at peace was the HAMPTON 
ROADS CONFERENCE. It failed. (See Gen. Julian Carr's 
pamphlet ) . 



17 



X. 

The Policy of the Northern Army Was to Destroy Property — 
That of the Southern Army to Protect It 

AUTHORITY: 
SHERroAN 's Official Report : 

"I have burned two thousand barns filled with wheat 
and corn, all the mills in the whole country, destroyed all 
the factories of cloth, killed or driven off every animal, 
even the poultry that could contribute to human sustenance. 

"Nothing should be left in the Shenandoah but eyes to 
lament the war." 

Sherman \s Memoirs: 

"It will not be necessary to sow salt on the site of Charles- 
ton after the Fifteenth Corps ha.s done its work." 

"One hundred million dollars of damage has been done 
to Georgia ; $20,000,000 inured to our benefit, the remainder 
simply waste and destruction." 

"On General Howell Cobb's plantation I told my men to 
spare nothing." 

"I'll not restrain the anny lest its vigor and energ}- be 
impaired." (p. 185). 

"In South Carolina I kindled my fire with an old mantel 
clock, and a piece of a handsome old bedstead." (p. 225). 

"Orders to kill Jeff Davis and his Cabinet on the spot" 
were found on the person of Dahlgren in Richmond, Va. 

Lord Palmerson in the British House of Commons took oc- 
casion to express deepest indignation at General Butler's in- 
famous order No. 28 against the ladies of New Orleans. 
General Grant to Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley, Vir- 
ginia : 

"Nothing shall be left to invite the enemy to return." 

' "City Point, July 14, 1864. 
" 'Major-General Halleek, Wajjhington, D. C. 

" 'If the enemy has left Maryland, as I suppose he has, 
he should have upon his heels veterans, militiamen, men on 
horseback, and everything that can be got to follow to eat 
out Virginia clear and clean as they go, so that the crows 
flving over it will have to carrv their provender with them. 
"(Signed) ' U. S. GRANT, 

" 'Lieutenant-General.* " 



IS 



" 'City Point, August 26, 1864. 
" 'Major-General Slieridan, Halltown, Va. : 

" 'Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can. 
Carry off stock of all descriptions and negroes, so as to pre- 
vent further planting. We want the Shenandoah Valley 
to remain a barren waste. 

" '(Signed) U. S. GRANT, 

" 'Lieutenant- General.' " 

" 'Headquarters Middle Military Division, 

" 'Harrisburg, Sept. 28, 1864, 10:30 p. m. 
" 'Brig.-Gen. W. Merritt, Commanding First Cavalry Di- 
vision : 
" 'General: The general commanding directed that you 
leave a small force to watch Swift Run and Brown Gap and 
with balance of your command and Custer's Division to 
swing around through or near Piedmont, extending toward 
and as near Staunton as possible. Destroy all mills, all 
grain, and all forage you can and drive off or kill all stock 
and otherwise carry out instructions of Lieutenant-General 
Grant, an extract of which is sent you and which means 
'leave a barren waste.' 

" ' (Signed) JAMES W. FORSYTH, 

" 'Lieut.-Col. and Chief of Staff to General Sheridan.' " 

" 'Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D. C, 

" 'December 18, 1864. 
" 'Major-General Sherman, Savannah: 

" 'Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by some 
accident the place may be destroyed; and if a little salt 
should be sown upon the site, it may prevent the growth of 
future crops of nullification and secession. 

" '(Signed) W. H. HALLECK, 

" 'Chief of Staff' " 

" 'Field Headquarters of the Military Division of 

the Mississippi, Savannah, December 24. 1864. 
" 'Major-General W. H. Halleck, Chief of Staff, Wash- 
ington, D. C. : 

" 'I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and I 
do not think 'salt' will be necessary. When I move, the 
Fifteenth Corps will be on the right of the right wing, and 
their postiion will bring them into Charleston first ; and if 
you have watched the history of this corps, you will have 
remarked that it generally does its work pretty well. 

" 'The truth is, the whole army is burning with an insa- 
tiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I 
almost tremble at her fate, but feel that she deserves all 

19 



that seems in store for her. We must make old and young, 
rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war as well as their 
organized armies. 

" '(Signed) W. T. SHERMAN, 

" 'Major-General.' " 

Major Nichols, ''The Story of a Great March, November 15, 
1864 (p. 38), Atlanta, Ga.: 

"A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the be- 
holders of this beautiful city now in flames. The Heaven 
is one expanse of lurid tire. The air is tilled witli flying, 
burning cinders. Buildings covering 200 acres are in ruins 
or flames." 

"We are leaving Atlanta. Behind we leave a track of 
smoke and flame. Yesterday we saw in the distance a pillar 
of smoke ; the bridges were all in flames. I heard a soldier 
say, 'I believe Sherman has set the very river on fire.' His 
comrades replied, 'If he has its all right.' The rebel inhab- 
itants are in an agony. The soldiers are as hearty and jolly 
as men can be." (p. 37). 

"The soldiers are hunting for concealed things and these 
searches are one of the pleasant excitements of our march." 
(p. 39). 

Sherman's Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 287: 

"In my official report of the conflagration of Columbia 
I distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and now 
I confess I did it pointedly to shake the faith of his people 
in him." 

Gregg's History, p. 375 : 

"The devastation of the Palatine hardly exceeded the 
desolation and misery wrought by the Republican invasion 
and conquest of the South. No conquered nation of modern 
days, not Poland under the heel of Nicholas, nor Spain or 
Russia under that of Napoleon, suffered from such individ- 
ual and collective ruin or saw^ before so frightful a pros- 
pect as the States dragged by-^orce in April, 1865." 

CONTRAST : 
President Davis: 

"In regard to the enemy's crews and vessels you are to 
proceed with the justice and humanity wdiich characterize 
our government and its citizens." 

"General Lee, for fear his soldiers should pillage while 
foraging in Pennsylvania, had the roll call three times 
daily." 

20 



It is true General Early did burn Chambersburg, Pa., but it 
was only after a refusal by the people to pay the $100,000 de- 
manded for General Hunter's destruction in the Shenandoah 
Valley. 

When at York, Pa., he was urged to burn that place in retalia- 
tion. He said : 

"We do not make war on women and children." 

General John B. Gordon to the women in York, Pa. : 

"If the torch is applied to a single dwelling or an insult 
offered to a woman by a soldier in my command, point me 
the man and you shall have his life." 

Charles Francis Adams testified : 

"I doubt if a hostile foe ever advanced in an enemy's 
country or fell back from it in retreat leaving behind it 
less cause for hate and bitterness than did the Army of 
Northern Virginia." 

R. E. Lee, Commanding General, Chambersburg, Penn., June 
21, 1863: 

"The commanding general considers that no greater dis- 
grace could befall the army, and through it our whole peo- 
ple, than the perpetuation of the barbarous outrages upon 
the unarmed and defenseless and the wanton destruction 
of private property that have marked the course of the 
enemy in our own country. 

"Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and 
all conected with them, but are subversive of the discipline 
and efficiency of the army and destructive of the ends of 
our present movement. It must be remembered that we 
make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take 
vengeance for tKe wrongs our people have suffered without 
lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has 
been excited by the atrocities of our enemies and offending 
against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose 
favor and support our efforts all prove in vain. The com- 
manding general, therefore, earnestly exhorts the troops to 
abstain, with most scrupulous care, from unnecessary or 
wanton injury to private property, and he enjoins upon all 
officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who 
shall in any way offend against the orders on this subject." 



21 



XI. 

The South Has Never Had Her Rightful Place In Literature 

AUTHORITY : 

Harriet Martineau said : 

"For more than fifty years after the Revolution the best 
specimen of periodical literature that this country afforded 
was 'The Southern Review,' published at Charleston, S. C, 
by Bledsoe." 

Hamilton W. Mabie placed Poe, Timrod and Lanier as equal 
in poetic quality with Bryant, Whittier and Longfellow. He 
said: 

"In the widening literary activity the South has borne 
a very notable part — indeed, it may be said that it has 
borne the chief part." 

Pancoast, of Philadelphia, says : 

"The Southern story writers have done more than given 
us studies of new localities. "We feel instinctively a differ- 
ent quality in their work. Contrasted with the New Eng- 
land writers we feel the richer coloring, the warmer blood, 
and the quicker pulses. When you read Hawthorne and 
then turn to ' Marse Chan' and 'Meh Lady' by Thomas Nel- 
son Page, it is like passing from the world of thought to the 
world of action — from the analysis of life to true living. 
It is a world where the men are full of knightly deeds." 

Hamilton Mabie said: 

"The genius of the Old South went into the management 
of public affairs and gave the country a group of statesmen 
that will not suffer by comparison with the foremost public 
men of any country." 

Then again : 

"The South of today has no explanations to make; her 
quota of writers of original gift and genuine art is perhaps 
more important than that furnished by any other section of 
our country. These writers exhibit certain qualities of the 
Southern temperament from which much may be expected 
in the literature of the future. Their work comes from the 
heart rather than from analytical faculties. It is made of 
flesh and blood, and it is therefore simple, tender, humor- 
ous and altogether human, and those qualities give assur- 
ance that it has long life before it." — The Outlook. 

AVhat does John Fiske^ a great historian of this century say? 

22 



While unjust to the South in many things he realizes the part 
the South has played in the making of the Nation : 

"Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Marshall and Alexan- 
der Hamilton are distinguished above all others and in an 
especial sense they deserve to be called the founders of the 
American Union. 

' ' The Declaration of Independence ranks with the Magna 
Charta and the Bill of Rights as one of the three greatest 
of State papers. 

"John Marshall, Chief Justice for thirty years, settled 
the relations of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial 
branches of the government. 

"James Madison, as a constructive thinker, did more than 
all others not only to create the Constitution, but to secure 
its ratification." 

What section of the country ever produced greater orators 
than Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, John Forsyth, Benjamin 
H. Hill, Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, Alexander Stephens, 
Robert Y. Hayne, William H. Yancey and a host of others? 

The greatest American dramatist was Augustin Daly, North 
Carolina. 

In "The Outlook" in 1899 appeared this article from the pen 
of Hamilton Mabie: 

"The South never lacked institutions to keep alive the 
best traditions of scholarship — never lacked culture to keep 
in touch with the best of thought and art in the Old World 
and the New. A love of letters was really keener in the 
South than in New England, and there was a much larger 
group of highly edvicated men in the South than in New 
England — but ethics and religion made literature of sec- 
ondary importance. 

"The genius of the Old South went into the manage- 
ment of public affairs, but it gave the country a group of 
statesmen who would add dignity to the most illustrious 
periods of statesmenship — such men as Washington, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, and Marshall — ^they will not suffer by com- 
parison with the foremost public men of the country." 



23 



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